Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Andrew Sullivan finds another example showing how phony the Republicans’ alleged concerns about spending and debt clearly are. They suddenly discover the cause of fiscal responsibility when a Democrat is in the White House, but even that convenient epiphany magically disappears when it’s time to go to war, when they grab the pom poms and start cheering.[Read more…]

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In what almost seems astonishing, Congress has apparently struck a deal to actually pass legislation to fix a problem. Congressional negotiators have reached a tentative deal on a bill to fix some of the pressing problems in VA health care, including emergency funding.[Read more…]

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Andy Kopsa, a terrific investigative reporter who briefly worked with my former employer, the American Independent News Network, has a long piece in the Nation about how the Obama administration has continued funneling huge amounts of money to Christian right organizations under the faith-based partnership programs, funds they use to proselytize and spread false medical information.[Read more…]

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Supply-side (or trickle-down) economics, the only economic plan the Republicans have had for the last four decades, claims that if you lower taxes you’ll boost the economy so much that it will boost tax receipts enough to make up for the lost revenue. That has never been true and here’s yet another example of it in Kansas, where reality has shown the exact opposite of what Republicans predicted.[Read more…]

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The day after the Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, I wrote that the administration should be able to essentially moot the decision by extending the accommodation given to religious non-profits to for-profit companies as well. Turns out it isn’t quite that easy.[Read more…]

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Answers in Genesis famously was given $43 million in tax breaks by the state of Kentucky a few years ago, but according to a local news site in that state those breaks have expired and they have had to reapply for them with a dramatically scaled-down project.[Read more…]

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The Freedom From Religion Foundation won a district court case (now on appeal) challenging the tax break for parsonage allowances for ministers. The judge ruled that because it applies only to ministers and not to other non-profit leaders, it violates the Equal Protection and Establishment clauses. A legislator has now proposed a bill to broaden that exemption to avoid the violation.[Read more…]

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A new book called The Entrepreneurial State, written by a British economist, apparently documents the fact that government-funded scientific and medical research has paid massive dividends in spurring technological innovation and life-saving medications and treatments.[Read more…]

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The Worldnetdaily was at CPAC, in the person of Gina Loudon, and she got the chance to interview Rand Paul while she was there. The result was an article so full of irony that they could not have ducked into the punch any harder if they’d done so purposely to make themselves look ridiculous.[Read more…]

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Paul Ryan spoke at CPAC over the weekend and delivered a truly appalling and inane speech about how terrible it is to help poor people eat. Why is it terrible? Because it gives them a “full stomach but an empty soul.” Oh, and he used a fake story to illustrate his point in the process.[Read more…]

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As the right wing continues to absolutely freak out about those “deep cuts” to “defense” spending that are allegedly being proposed by the Obama administration, Eric Stoner points out the absurdity of those claims at Alternet, noting that there are no real cuts and that our real defense spending is actually much higher than the Pentagon’s budget.[Read more…]

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I am alternately amused and appalled by the hysterical overreaction from the right to the Obama administration’s proposed Pentagon budget cuts that aren’t really cuts at all. The Worldnetdaily wants you to know that Obama is “unilaterally disarming” the country.[Read more…]

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The Obama administration is proposing budget cuts that aren’t really cuts at all and wingnut Allen West is losing his mind about it, even calling Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a “turncoat” and a “traitor” for the “unconscionable” cuts that will “weaken America.”[Read more…]

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The media is breathlessly reporting on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s newly announced Pentagon budget proposal, which — OMG! — reduces the number of troops to the lowest number since before WW2! These are very deep, major cuts in spending, you guys. Except, of course, they aren’t. From Hagel’s speech announcing the “cuts.”[Read more…]

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Sahil Kapur reports at Talking Points Memo about Sen. Orrin Hatch’s absurdly dishonest and incoherent position on the CBO’s report on Obamacare and the economy. First, he repeated the lie that the report says that Obamacare would destroy two million jobs:[Read more…]